What's the point of competitive battles?

[Tora.Silver]

Don't get me wrong, I love Pokemon. I've played at least one game from every generation, and many of the spinoffs. But I don't get competitive battling.

For one thing, I'm completely awful at it, which could contribute to my viewpoint. But from what I can tell, isn't a battle decided from the moment two players are matched up? If I'm correct, two teams can be compared, and one can definitely be better than the other. I mean, when it comes to IV breeding and EV training, a dedicated trainer can spend hours to make sure each stat is at its absolute maximum level, because one stat point can make or break a game. If this is really the case, where does the skill come into play? Building a team? I don't know if I'm explaining my point of view right, but it just seems like if one team can be pronounced to be definitely better than another team, why should those two teams battle? Wouldn't it make much more sense for the team previews to show up, the trainers look at them, and the loser says, "Oh, your team is better," and DC's?

And during a battle, isn't there always a single move that's the best choice to use in that situation? It seems that if both trainers know enough to choose the best move and their stylus doesn't say, slip or something, isn't the fate of the battle decided before it starts?

I don't mean to start an argument, but maybe somebody can tell me where I'm wrong, so I can begin to enjoy online battles like evrybody else. Thanks for reading.

 

[Griffinbane]

No, a battle isn't decided as soon as both teams are revealed. What is super important are the movesets and the strategies behind the teams. You could have an all-legendary team battle teams with oddities in it such as Wigglytuff (there was a Wigglytuff at Regionals, I am still in awe) and the Wigglytuff team can come up on top because it was just plain used better.

There's a lot of strategy involved in competitive battling. Say you see a really slow team, you CAN assume it's a Trick Room team and battle accordingly but what if your opponent pulls a fast one on you and drops a Tailwind? What if your opponent threw down a Stealth Rock, expected you to switch and throws a Fire Blast the predicted switch, just for you to stay put and punch the sucker in the face? Competitive battling is about prediction, adaption, and out-battling your opponent.

Anyhow, part of the problem could just be the format you're battling in. I was always mediocre in singles and didn't find singles battles particularly fun. I switched over to doubles VGC and while my team-building ability can probably still be considered mediocre, my battling ability is far better and competitive VGC is fun to me.

 

[MoxieInfinite]

There are three main factors when it comes to competitive Pokemon.

1. Teambuilding
2. Skill
3. Hax(luck)

Teambuilding is really important. You can get far being an average player with a fantastic team. Building good cores, being able to counterteam, etc. is a really huge part, and it often leads to an advantage in the game.

Skill is obvious. It's the by far most important part. If you're a fantastic player, you can win versus decent players despite using an RU team in OU (the team has to be somewhat structured tho, you can't bring Mono-Bug and expect to 6-0 every Ubers team).

Hax is often what decides the even games. If a player has a really solid defensive core, but gets critted, your team is in trouble. Especially stall is suspectible to critical hits and other ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ RNG stuff (♥♥♥♥ Scald). For offense the story is a bit different. The game is pretty straight forward, often something like 15-ish turns. Hax can be huge, but generally isn't. Stuff like Dark Void misses can be devastating though, and the lead advantage is huge for offense, because the opponent rarely is able to turn that around. However, what differs the good players from the best players ARE the ones who are able to do that. But this is starting to get irrelevant.

The point of competitive Pokemon is to win. Nothing else.

 

[WingedDragon]

There are three main factors when it comes to competitive Pokemon.

1. Teambuilding
2. Skill
3. Hax(luck)

Teambuilding is really important. You can get far being an average player with a fantastic team. Building good cores, being able to counterteam, etc. is a really huge part, and it often leads to an advantage in the game.

Skill is obvious. It's the by far most important part. If you're a fantastic player, you can win versus decent players despite using an RU team in OU (the team has to be somewhat structured tho, you can't bring Mono-Bug and expect to 6-0 every Ubers team).

Hax is often what decides the even games. If a player has a really solid defensive core, but gets critted, your team is in trouble. Especially stall is suspectible to critical hits and other ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ RNG stuff (♥♥♥♥ Scald). For offense the story is a bit different. The game is pretty straight forward, often something like 15-ish turns. Hax can be huge, but generally isn't. Stuff like Dark Void misses can be devastating though, and the lead advantage is huge for offense, because the opponent rarely is able to turn that around. However, what differs the good players from the best players ARE the ones who are able to do that. But this is starting to get irrelevant.

The point of competitive Pokemon is to win. Nothing else.

and to win trophies that look like Pikachu. and money some money to go win that Pikachu trophy that you want.

 

[charizardismyfavorite]

u can win money for pokemon tourneys?

 

[Griffinbane]

In real life tournaments with prize support, yes. Official Pokemon tournaments don't give you money, they give you travel awards. Tournaments at say, game/hobby stores may have cash prizes.

 

[Sweep]

People play competitive Pokemon for the same reason quality athletes play high school and collegiate sports. The thrill of competition against other people good at what you do feeds into your competitive nature. Extremely competitive, driven people work hard to get better at their hobby to say that they are "the best" at what they do. Competitive battling gives people who play Pokemon as their hobby a chance to become known and respected as a player, as well as an opportunity to satisfy their competitive urges. If you remember that Pokemon is just a kid's game and not something to get too worked up over, competitive battling is actually quite a bit of fun*. With that said, casual playing is cool too, I like to ladder in Ubers with random Pokemon like Wailord and Cherrim just for the fun of it. Likewise, there's nothing wrong with recreational/intramural sports if you are not driven/talented enough to play at a varsity level :).

Moxie's post summed up the rest of what I wanted to say!

 

[Hiatus]

To me, competitive battling is like playing games of chess; a fun way to kill time while also exercising your mind. xD; If we don't see much point in it, then, well, we'd be better off doing something else, such as writing, drawing, playing some actual video games, or pretty much anything, really!

 

[wildfarfetchd]

People play competitive Pokemon for the same reason quality athletes play high school and collegiate sports.

not entirely, many people play sports because they enjoy a locker room environment, interacting and sharing camaraderie with team mates, gaining the health benefits of exercise, travelling, or receiving scholarships.

anyways- the bases of winning pokemon battles is largely affected by the team that you play with. playing on showdown will make you realize how many people in the lower rankings have crap teams, and how many people ranked above or around 1600 (which is a decent rank), have very standard teams with high usage pokemon that are well known to compliment each other. if we all had the same team of six pokemon, skill would not factor in as much.

also, i agree with the undertones of the original point of this thread, what is the point of competitive battling?

after ranking fairly high on showdown i have come to the realization that the higher you rank the less fun the battles become. they feel monotonous playing against the same pokemon over and over again. i havent played a ranked battle in awhile and ive had more fun focusing on nintendos wifi network playing with less commonly used pokemon.

i do still have fun helping people competitively team build though.